5 minute read
At the Museum
Erin Blankenship President & CEO
The year 2025 is going by so quickly; it’s hard to believe it is summertime already!
Record-setting school year
Our 2024-25 student Holocaust education programs reached a record high, impacting more than 40,000 students and teachers! Among the programs offered to students and teachers in eight Florida counties were in-classroom presentations, Pop-Up Museum exhibitions, Museum field trips, survivor and 2G presentations, and the opportunity to host the Jack and F.E. Nortman Boxcar Educational Project.
Two recent field trips to the Museum — Oakridge Middle School from Collier County and Miami Shores Presbyterian Church School from Miami — illustrate our reach! Our public outreach programs and group tours impacted more than 3,000 additional people. We are grateful to the June Hirsch Jones Foundation Inc. and the Suncoast Credit Union Foundation for their grants, which support the costs of student/teacher/chaperone Museum admission, transportation fees for field trips, and substitute teacher reimbursement costs. Our educational programs are also funded by our wonderful donors and other generous foundations.
Scholarship winners
This school year, two generous donors (one anonymous) provided funding for three Southwest Florida student scholarships awards. The anonymous donor offered two $1,000 awards — one for students in Collier County and one for students in Lee County. To qualify, entrants either interviewed a 2G member or wrote a reflective essay about an exhibition or artifact from our Museum. The Collier County scholarship was awarded to Jack Marshal from Naples High School. The Lee County scholarship was awarded to Javaria James from Fort Myers High School.
Museum Board member Stephen Light provided funding for a third contest award. Available to students in any of the eight Southwest Florida counties we serve, the award’s criterion was an essay reflection on the impact that Holocaust education has had on them personally. This scholarship was awarded to two North Port High School students in Sarasota County. The students are putting the funds toward their “Classroom Without Borders” trip to visit Holocaust sites in Germany, Poland, Austria and the Czech Republic.
Principals and administrators trip
As you read this article, Education Manager Katie Butte and I are in Washington D.C. leading a trip of eight Southwest Florida school principals and administrators. The trip provides the Museum with a unique opportunity to create a contact network at the administrator level, similar to the one we have built over the years with individual teachers. One of our goals is to build support and advocacy for Holocaust education and our programs in Southwest Florida schools. Our itinerary includes visiting the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to learn more about its Community of Holocaust Education Centers (CHEC) program, in which we have previously participated, as well as other important history museums in the area.
The group attended an orientation night at the Museum prior to the trip. Butte and Community Engagement Manager Julie Cohen provided an overview on the variety of age-appropriate Holocaust education programs and exhibits offered at no charge to Southwest Florida schools. Attendees were also given top priority to reserve these programs for the 2025-26 school year.
Summer programs
We have a lot of things happening this summer:
• The Jack and F.E. Nortman Boxcar Education Project is on display at the Museum until July 31. It is fully booked for the 2025-26 school year!
• The Museum is offering members a summer “admission reciprocity” program with several other Southwest Florida organizations. For more information, please contact Julie@hmcec.org.
• Through Sept. 1, the “Blue Star Museums” initiative offers active-duty military and up to five family members complimentary Museum admission with military ID.
Current and upcoming exhibitions
“Convincing the Masses: Propaganda at Home and Abroad” will be on display through Aug. 18. The exhibition provides examples, drawn from the Museum’s permanent collections, of World War II Nazi and Allied propaganda. Special artifacts are also on loan from community members.
A new exhibition, “Painting the Irena Sendler Story,” begins Sept. 9. Sarasota based artist Bill Farnsworth donated his paintings to the Museum. He painted them as illustrations for the children’s book “Irena Sendler and the Children of the Warsaw Ghetto.” Sendler helped save 2,500 children in the Warsaw Ghetto. We use this book in our Holocaust education programs to show students the power one person has to help others in need. The exhibition will be on display through Dec. 15.
Save the dates
Please mark your calendars with the dates for the 2025 Luncheon and Triumph 2026!
Scheduled for Dec. 3, the 2025 Luncheon will feature a presentation by New York photographer Gillian Laub, who created the “Live2Tell” photographic project of Holocaust survivor portraits.
Triumph 2026 will be held March 4, 2026. More information on tickets, locations and sponsorship opportunities will be available shortly.
The next time you are in the Museum, please stop by our new Gift Shop in the lobby! Your purchases help support our Holocaust education programs.
All of us at the Museum wish you and your families a happy and safe summer. Hope to see you at the Museum soon!
